I was reminded about how little I want a 4K smartphone display today when I read this terrific PhoneArena
feature that showed it’s virtually impossible for the human eye to tell
the difference between a Quad HD display and a 4K display on such a
tiny device. What makes 4K displays particularly pernicious is that they
may actually detract from the overall user experience.

“System
performance will take a massive hit, and so will battery life—already
exemplified by our Xperia Z5 Premium battery test, which put it on equal
footing with the 1080p Xperia Z5, despite having a battery with 530 mAh
extra,” PhoneArena writes. “Clearly, the screen is drawing a
lot of power, even if it downscales content (our battery test is
entirely rendered in 1080p).”

Thankfully,
it sounds like both Samsung and LG are passing on giving their flagship
devices 4K displays next year. But what’s really baffling here is why
any company thinks there’s a mass market for 4K smartphones at this time
when several surveys have shown
that improved battery life is the thing users want most from their new
mobile devices. BlackBerry has made a concerted effort to tout its new
phones’ battery life but considering its limited marketing resources,
it’s still not getting very far.

What
smartphone vendor will be the first to solve this major pain point? Or
is better battery life just something that has a lot of support from
power users but isn’t something the average user cares about? At this
point we have no idea and the seeming lack of attention paid to
improving smartphone battery life remains a baffling mystery